Four years later appeared in folio: D. CECILII CYPRIANI EPI fcopi Carthaginienfis, Marty RIS CHRISTI OPERA, QVOTQVOT PERQVIRENTIBVS reperire Dei munere conceffum eft,omnia: veterum exemplarium collatione accuratè repurgata:& fecundum sedulam illam doctorum hominum olim induftriam, libris non paucis recèns è tenebris atque fitu erutis non infeliciter, vt fperamus, aucta, CVM INDICE RERVM LOCVPLETISSIMO, ET OBSERVATIOnibus tam variæ lectionis, quàm aliorum quorundam maximè infignium fanè quàm non pœnitendis. PARISIIS, M. D. LXIIII. Apud Claudium Fremy, fub infigni D. Martini, via Iacobça. CVM PRIVILEGIO REGIS. Among the books thus 'disinterred from darkness and mould,' on pp. 458-461, was printed without a word of introduction, 'CAECILII CYPRIANI GENESIS'. This edition has been strangely neglected by bibliographers'. Ebert and Graesse omit it; nor is it in the Bodleian catalogue. The title, printed above, is taken from a copy in the University library, Cambridge, and from another (the gift of Whitaker's biographer, Abdias Ashton) in St John's library. Each of these has a leaf of blank paper only between the title and sheet a. But from Schoenemann biblioth. patr. lat. I 122 and from Hartel's preface p. LXXXI I learn that other copies, of the same year, bear the imprint Parisiis apud Guil. Desbois sub Sole aureo uia Iacobaea; and contain a letter from Turnebus to 1 Maittaire annales typogr. 1 730 knows the two imprints (Fremy and Morel), but not the third (Desbois). Charles IX, entreating him to relieve the widow and children of Morel, who died while the work was at press. By the kindness of Dr Porter, Master of Peterhouse, I am enabled to add from a copy given by Andrew Perne to the library of that college, a third variation, with the letter of Turnebus and a wholly different title: GVL. MORELLII DILIGENTIA ET LABORE. [Then a Cupid, seated on a cross-bar within an O, round which twine two dragons.] PARISIIS, M.D. LXIIII. Apud. Gul. Morellium, in Græcis typographum Regium. CVM PRIVILEGIO REGIS. The letter of Turnebus, without date, occupies two leaves. It discusses first the importance of true doctrine, the wars of religion, the necessity for suppressing dissent. Morel is then introduced: Gulielmus Morellius rem magni et animi et impendii susceperat accommodatissimam ad horum temporum caliginem discutiendam, lumenque ueritatis hominibus ueluti praelucendum, antiquissimos quosque ecclesiae scriptores Graecos et Latinos emittere: iamque feliciter Dionysium eiusque interpretem et paraphrasten ediderat : Cyrilli Catecheses ad umbilicum paene perduxerat: Cyprianum multis undique conquisitis et corrogatis exemplaribus, libris etiam auctum prope absoluerat, cum repente horum auctorum editioni immortuus, familiam aere alieno coopertam, uxorem miseram1, liberos inopes reliquit. is nunc pro sua familia Cyprianum ad 1 This word is printed on a slip of paper pasted over the original epithet. te, Rex Christianissime, allegat, quem in tuo nomine apparere uoluit, per eumque te supplex rogat et obsecrat, suorum ut liberorum solicitudinis et inopiae miserearis, aliquidque elargiaris, ad aes alienum, non nequitia, sed studio de rep. bene merendi contractum, luendum atque dissoluendum. erant ei annua a patre tuo augustissimo rege Errico constituta : sed hisce proximis annis communium temporum iniquitas et angustiae aerarii non permiserunt ut illa liberalitate frueretur. erit igitur, Christianissime Rex, beneficentiae tuae, quod illi temporum calamitas ademit, nec tamen studium religionem iuuandi eripuit, ipsius liberis tuam per hunc pontificem implorantibus opem et fidem, iubere restitui atque persolui: ut non plus ei abstulisse fortunae iniuria uideatur, quam tua benignitas reddidisse. ille in eo diligenter elaborauit, sedulamque operam nauauit, ut tuam remp. his scriptoribus instrueret, quibus ad eam constituendam, et ex tanta disciplinae ueteris perturbatione, et belli intestini tempestate et iactatione recreandam atque reficiendam, animosque hominum de religione dissentientium placandos atque reconciliandos, tibi tuisque opus esset, re familiari interea neglecta, priuatisque commodis et ualetudine. tantam eius in patriam pietatem, te tanto et tam munifico Rege, et iam in primis ineuntis aetatis tuae spatiis bonas artes, literas, studia ingenua, uirtutemque non solum admirante, uerum etiam prolixe liberaliterque donante atque munerante, non parem experiri in suos largitatem, tuae isti magnificae liberalique naturae consentaneum non fuerit nec decorum. I leave to bibliographical experts the question of the relative dates of the three title-pages. It is possible that the letter of Turnebus may have given offence and been suppressed; and indeed it would be strange, if the imprint William Morel, typographer Royal,' came after the others. Later editors have done justice to Morel. Baluze had seven copies of his edition with collations (Schoenemann). Hartel' says (praef. p. LXXXI): Nouam prorsus uiam eodem tempore ingressus est Gulielmus Morelius, qui prioribus editionibus neglectis, maximam scriptorum partem ex codicibus denuo imprimendam curauit et spuria conplura adiecit. Hartel accounts (p. LXXXII) for the neglect into which the book fell, by the absence of a critical preface: integritatem eius solus Prudentius Maranus recte aestimauit in Baluzianae editionis praefatione scribens: editio satis accurata est ac in multis, quae perperam in sequentibus editionibus mutata fuerant, cum codicibus mss. consentit. illi enim recentissimos codices respexerunt, Morelius in dige 1 Hartel strangely declares that the poems Genesis and Sodoma were first printed in 1564. M. H. c rendis et emendandis operibus uetustiores secutus est...carmina ex codice Victorico 380 accuratissime descripsit et emendauit. itaque Moreliana reliquas tam integritate superat quam recentiorum codicum plebeculam ab uetustioribus uirtute superari supra demonstratum est. Optimam Morelii editionem pessima Pamelii secuta est. In the last edition of Cyprian, edited by Hartel, append. Vienna, 1871, the Genesis, from 'codex Victorinus 380, nunc Parisinus, saec. XIII,' beginning incipit liber geneos (sic) metricus Cipriani,' appears pp. 283-2891. William Morel, a learned printer, born in 1505 at Tilleul in Normandy, died at Paris 19 Febr. 1564. Many members of his family were distinguished in letters. Like other early scholars, he was as much at home in the fathers as in the heathen classics. Many will remember the respect with which Madvig, a stern Rhadamanthus, speaks of his labours on Cicero de finibus. He was not unworthy to succeed (in 1555) Turnebus as printer to the king of France, and to provoke the professional jealousy of the great Henri Estienne. Like Estienne he at one time joined the standard of the Reformation, but recanted to save his preferment and his life. The poverty of Morel's later years making it impossible for him to maintain the typographical excellence of his prime, Estienne in a tart epigram ascribes his failure to a guilty conscience. Sed quod non huius respondent ultima primis, ars bene fida prius, nec bene fida manet: ne mirare, fidem quod et ars sua fregerit illi; namque datam Christo fregerat ille fidem. William's martyred younger brother, John, is one of the noblest gems in the crown of the French Protestant church?. 1 Twice Hartel seems on the brink of discovering the complete Genesisseems warm, as children say at play-(that he should know nothing of the Spicilegium Solesmense we will try to condone), once when (praef. p. xx) he describes the ms. which Martène employed, and again when (p. LXVI) he cites L. Müller's article (Rhein. Mus. 1867, p. 329) on the poems Sodoma and De Iona. Had he taken up the volume for 1866, he would have found Müller censuring Giles and Oehler for ignorance of Martène's labours. 2 See for both brothers Hoefer's Biographie générale, and for the younger Crespin's martyrology. No sooner had William's entreaties induced him to sign an abjuration, than, like our own still persecuted Cranmer, he condemned About the same time with the Cyprian appeared in a ra Christiana, & operum reli quiæ atq; fragmenta: THESAVRVS CATHOLI CAE ET ORTHODOXAE ECCLESIAE, & Antiquitatis religiofæ, ad utilitatem iuuen- Collectus, emendatus, digeftus, & Commentario quoq; ex- GEORGII FABRICII CHEMNI- Cum priuilegio Cæfareo ad fexennium. BASILE AE, PER IOAN- his unworthy right hand: "incontinent que j'eu signé mes blasphèmes de ma main, mon signe me fut comme le chant du coq à S. Pierre." 1 The book consists of two volumes, not numbered as such. The first has 16 pp. of prefatory matter, including a dedication to Alexander, 'duke' of Saxony, dated Meissen, 13 cal. Mart. 1562. Here Fabricius urges the claims of the Christian poets on classical scholars. Ludouicus Viues had denounced Iuuencus, Sedulius, Prosper, Paulinus, as muddy waters. Aldus Manutius asseverated that among the learned of Italy he had met not one who had read a line of ancient Christian poetry: students would not be so ignorant of Christian religion, if these authors received due attention.' The text of the poets fills 872 columns, and the index 84 columns. Vol. 11 contains the commentary, alphabetically arranged. This is dedicated to John Neuius, physician to the elector of Saxony (13 cal. Iul. 1562). The colophon bears date 1564 mense Martio. |